


Rat Chase

by yagirlqueenie



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, idk how they can afford it, the trio are roommates that share an apartment in the city
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 23:41:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30029670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yagirlqueenie/pseuds/yagirlqueenie
Summary: Neil finds a rat in the kitchen bright and early in the morning, and Nikki is devoted on keeping it as a pet up until Max lets it escape out into the city, now the start of their spring break must be spent chasing after the damn thing for Nikki's sake.
Kudos: 4





	Rat Chase

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, fuck being a good writer, I wanted to write some funny bs about the trio being young adults and chasing after a rat in the city, is that so bad?

Sure, Max had expected spring break to be loud, but he didn’t expect to hear Neil screaming in the kitchen first thing in the morning right on day 1. You’d think his roommates would have at _least_ waited til noon to start making a ruckus in their shared apartment, but apparently he was wrong, and now he was awake and pissy.

And now he could hear his other roommate, Nikki, opening her door and checking out what’s going on, and now _she’s_ screaming, but not like he was.

“ _OH MY GOD! IT’S SO CUTE, CAN WE KEEP IT?”_

“ _EW, NIKKI, **NO!”**_

Letting out a groan, Max rolled out of bed, dusting off chip crumbs that had gathered on his hoodie from midnight snacking. He stomped out of his room, slamming open his bedroom door before letting out a “what is you guy’s problem?!”

  
“I was trying to get started on the coffee, and a _RAT_ ran out from under the fridge!” Neil whined as he tried climbing onto the counters.

Nikki nodded, “Neil’s terrified of it, but I wanna keep him!! C’mon, Max, with your vote we can win Scrappy!!”

“ _Scrappy?_ ” Max asked. “Nikki, don’t tell me you already _named_ it”

She gives him a smile as she laid on the ground to look under the fridge, “Well of _course_ I named him, you guys know I’ve always wanted a pet!”

Neil scrunched his nose at her, “Yeah, I thought you were talking about, I don’t know, a _cat_ or something?”

Nikki shrugged, “I mean, yeah, cats are _alright_ , but a pet _rat_ would be really cool!!” She sighed. “I can see it now, everyone on the block would call me ‘Nikki the Rat Queen’, you don’t want to deprive me of that, do you?”

Max groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose, “I’ll be honest, there are a lot of things I’d like to call you right now, and ‘Nikki the Rat Queen’ isn’t one of them”

“...what if I told you it was my _Catholic_ name?” She asked with a raised brow as she stuck her arm under the fridge.

“No it isn’t,” Neil noted.

“Aw, rats...” Nikki said in defeat before her eyes lit up as she felt something. “Aw, rats!”

Nikki pulled out a rat, it hissed in her hand and Neil screamed as he tried to back himself further away from it. Max let out a yelp as he backed out of the kitchen and straight to the front door.

“NIKKI!” Max screamed from behind the door, “PUT THE RAT DOWN!”

Nikki let out an offended gasp, “I WILL _NOT_ PUT DOWN MY SON, MAX!”

“THAT THING ISN’T YOUR SON, IT IS A MENACE TO SOCIETY AND A SERIOUS PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD!” Neil retorted as he tried to escape the kitchen.

Nikki stood up, shoving Scrappy the Rat in Neil’s face, “C’mon, Neil!! He loves you!! How can you say no to his face?”

Neil squirmed as he ran out of counter space to back into, “Believe me, Nikki, I can _easily_ say no to a face like that”

Nikki frowned, “Neeeeiiiiillll, why won’t you let me have this _one_ thing? I mean, me and Max let you keep those robots!”

“Firstly, those ‘robots’ were a part of my studies, they got me a fantastic grade and you _know it._ Secondly, getthatthingawayfrommeoHMYGOD-”

Neil slid off the counter, opting to hide behind Max instead, despite him being _much_ shorter than him. Max rolled his eyes as he scooted his way back into the kitchen to go make himself some coffee.

Nikki whimpered. “Max, tell him we should keep him!!”

“We?”

“Y-yeah!! C’mon, Max, he’s small, you’re small, the two of you are _basically_ twins!”

Nikki held Scrappy up to Max, and he promptly shoved the rodent away from him with his elbow. Neil, who was _still_ trying to use Max as a human shield, cowered as Scrappy got closer.

Nikki huffed, “you guys are _dicks._ ”

Neil scoffed, “no, we’re just trying not to get infected by that _vile_ little creature!”

“VILE?!”

“YES, _VILE!”_

Max’s face remained evenly annoyed as he pressed the brew button on the machine. It purred to life as Max then climbed up onto the counter and opened up his phone to check Twitter as his roommates fussed over the rodent.

  
“Tell you what,” Neil said, referring to both Nikki _and_ Max. “Whoever gets rid of the rat first, dead or alive, gets to skip out on paying this month’s rent”

Max’s eyes lit up, and Nikki’s expression dropped. “Neil, you _wouldn’t.”_

“ _Oh, but I would.”_

Max’s head _slowly_ turned in Nikki’s direction, and Nikki pleaded “Max, _no!_ ” as she held Scrappy close to her chest.

Max slid himself off of the counter, “Listen, Nikki, you can either keep the rat, or you could get rid of it and not have to pay this month’s rent. Do you not _realize_ what an amazing deal that is?”

Nikki whined. “Nooo!! Scrappy the rat is my _BABY!!!_ ”

Max huffed before he launched at the rat. “I’M GETTING THAT DEAL, NIKKI!”

“NO!!!” She screamed as she tried to kick Max away. “HANDS OFF MY RAT, YOU WEENIE!!”

Max struggled to reach the rat from her hands, but she continued to shove him away as Neil tried (and failed due to disgust) to grab Scrappy from behind.

Nikki ducked and ran away from the boys before the opted to hop onto the counters to get Scrappy out of their reach. “Nobody is taking my special little boy away from me!! He’s my son and he’s _our_ pet, whether you like it or not!”

Neil crossed his arms, “Nikki, I _know_ you’ve been wanting a pet for a long time, now, but we literally _can’t_ have a rat! They get into everything and have rabies! You can have a pet, but it _can’t_ be a rat!”

“Yeah, and I _kiiind_ of want to skip out on rent this month, Nikki” Max said as he stuffed his hands on his pockets.

Nikki frowned as she looked down on the two of them as she held Scrappy close. The two basically had her cornered, and were leaving her with little to no choice.

“Nikki, c’mon,” Max huffed.

“We can get a cat or something! Maybe even a dog!” Neil said in an attempt to negotiate.

Nikki’s lip quivered as she looked down at Scrappy. “B-but… He’s my boy...”

Max and Neil looked at each other as Nikki started to sniffle. Max let out a quiet “Oh shit” under his breath as he tugged on the drawstrings of his hoodie.

“Nikki, I’m… C-C’mon...” Neil said, stepping closer to her cautiously.

Nikki wiped her nose against her wrist, “Can you at least, I-I dunno… _Hold him?_ ”

“...Why?” Neil asked, raising a brow.

“I dunno, maybe it’s love at first hold!! Can you at _least_ give it a try!!”

Neil’s lip quivered before he let out a sigh, “fine. I’ll hold it. But _JUST_ this once.”

Nikki handed Scrappy over to Neil, and as Neil reached over for him, Scrappy did a complete 180 and zipped onto the ground for freedom before running out of the front door.

“SCRAPPY!” Nikki cried out.

“Oh shit, the door. Yeah, that’s my bad,” Max admitted as his expression fell.

Nikki hopped off of the counter and shook Max by his hoodie, “GET MY SON BACK NOW!!” she demanded.

“What, why do I gotta get him back? We needed to get rid of it, anyway, the problem basically solved itself!” He protested.

“Because, I need to at _least_ say goodbye! Besides, the city is _dangerous,_ it’s no place for a rat!”

“Um, actually-” Neil started, but Nikki whipped her head in his direction, and he silenced himself. “Right, yeah”

“Now, c’mon, you guys, we’ve got a rat to chase down!” Nikki said as she ran out the door.

Max rolled his eyes, “fine, whatever. May as well go along with it before Nikki plans our deaths along the way”

Neil sighed as he reached for his shoes, “besides, she’ll probably get lost in the park. _Again._ Let’s go”

Max locked the door behind them, “so, like, do either of us still get off from this month’s rent, orrrr...”

  
  


And so the three set out on their search for Scrappy the Rat in the big city. Somehow, Nikki had the time to make and print out posters to staple around the city, despite her never even taking a picture of him. It was _literally_ just clip art of a rat she got off of Google, it didn’t even _look_ like Scrappy, but that’s Nikki for ya.

They searched the park in hopes he was frolicking in the playground giving children rabies, but he was no where to be seen.

They then searched the local movie theater in hopes they were playing Ratatouille and that it was his favorite movie, but they weren’t, and he surely wasn’t watching Baby Driver, either, so that was like two hours wasted.

_Then_ they searched the local Lego store hoping he was confused about his sexuality and was looking to hookup with a Lego store cashier- okay, where the _fuck_ is Nikki even getting these ideas?

It’s too early for this, and Max and Neil suggested they take a break and go get some breakfast somewhere. Nikki sighed and agreed as they headed into an expensive and over-hyped cafe.

  
“Grande black coffee and a cake pop for… _Mack?_ ”

Max sighed as he made his way over to the pickup station to grab his stuff. He didn’t understand how they could mess up a 3 letter name, but he chose not to question it. He dropped a couple of bucks into the tip jar before he went back to the bench where Neil and Nikki sat, waiting for him. He gave Nikki the cake pop, and she let out a quiet “thank you...” as she took it from him.

Nikki hugged her legs close to her chest as she moped over the disappearance of her beloved Scrappy, and Neil, who was grazing on a scone he had bought, gave her a guilty expression.

“N-Nikki, look… I’m sorry I got mad at you back there… I didn’t think you’d get _that_ attached to the rat that quickly,” he admitted.

“And I’m sorry for… I dunno… Letting him get loose...” Max said, but he didn’t really mean it. He was tired, he just wanted coffee and to go home and sleep through the rest of spring break.

Nikki looked over at the both of them, “...You really mean it?” She asked.

Neil nodded.

“Totally,” Max lied.  
  


Nikki sniffled as she wiped her eyes with her arm. “W-Well, I guess he’s happier being a city rat… Maybe one day… We’ll cross paths again… And we can adopt him for reals...”

Max mouthed “Will we?” And Neil mouthed “no we won’t” back at him with a shake of his head.

“ _Maybeee_ we can adopt a more… _Suitable_ pet… One that _isn’t_ a rat?” Neil suggested, taking another bite of his scone.

Nikki, who had a mouth-full of cake, had her eyes wide.

“ _Weawwy?_ ” She asked, and Neil had to hold back the urge to cringe at the fact that crumbs were spilling all over her.

“T-totally!” He said. “Anything _but_ a rat!”

Nikki stood up, pulling the boys up by their wrists, “then what are we waiting for, let’s go!”

The nearest pet store was quite a walk away, and unsurprisingly, Nikki was easily distracted by _everything_ the city had to offer.

Max groaned as he chugged the last bit of his coffee, “can we _please_ take a fucking shortcut? I’m tired, I wanna go back to the apartment”

“According to google maps, we _should_ be there in just about a minute. It’s right around this corner,” Neil stated as he kept his eyes on his phone.

Max scoffed as he threw his head back, “if I had known we’d be walking all day, I would have just stayed in bed”

“C’mon, Max, it’s _spring break,_ you can’t just stay in bed all week!” Nikki said, skipping ahead of them both.

“Yes I can, actually. And that’s what I’d be doing in an ideal world,” Max protested.

“And in _my_ ideal world, my son wouldn’t have ran away,” Nikki added sternly, and Max shut his mouth.

  
Neil put his phone in his pocket as he looked over at the buildings next to them. “Okay, right past this alley way, aaaand-”

Nikki gasped when she looked into the alleyway, the boys let out a “what?!” before she ran into the alley.

“Oh good lord- NIKKI!” Max yelled as he looked into the alley. The boys spotted her jumping into a dumpster, and they both winced in disgust.

Neil brought his phone back out and turned on it’s flashlight, “Nikki, what are you doing in there?! You’ll get an infection!”

“Guys! Look!” Nikki squealed as she hopped back out of the dumpster. She held up a raccoon, it was very chunky and had shaggy fur, and it was hissing as she held it up like Simba in the beginning of _The Lion King._

“I think we found our new pet!” She announced as she hugged it, and Neil felt the urge to throw up in his mouth from the smell that came off of it.

“We are _not_ adopting a raccoon!” Neil protested loudly.

“Yes we are!” Nikki stated. “You said we could adopt anything _but_ a rat! And this is not a rat! Tell him, Max!”

“She’s got a point,” he said bluntly. At this point, he was too tired to care about what they came home with, he just wanted to get home himself so he could pass out on his bed for the remainder of the week.

Neil dragged his hand over his face, he looked done with Nikki’s shit, but he was at a loss of what to do.

“Fine, _fine._ Let’s just… Let’s go get it some food at the pet store and go home...” Neil said in defeat.

Nikki cheered and held their new pet close, “man, I’ve gotta come up with a name for you little guy!! Maybe _Senior Trashy?_ ”

“We are _not_ naming him _Senior Trashy_ ,” Max stated.

Nikki shrugged. “We’ll put a pin in that”


End file.
